After being sentenced to 14 years for murder, Alex gets a job as an assistant to the prison chaplain. He feigns interest in religion, and amuses himself by reading the Bible for its lurid descriptions of “the old yahoodies (Jews) tolchocking (beating) each other”, imagining himself taking part in “the nailing-in” (the Crucifixion of Jesus). Alex hears about an experimental rehabilitation programme called “the Ludovico Technique”, which promises that the prisoner will be released upon completion of the two-week treatment, and will not commit crimes afterwards.
Partially by taking part in the fatal beating of a cellmate, Alex manages to become the subject in the first full-scale trial of the Ludovico Technique. The technique itself is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is given a drug that induces extreme nausea while being forced to watch graphically violent films for 2 weeks. Among the films shown are propaganda films such as Triumph of the Will, which includes Alex’s beloved Beethoven. He asks them to take out the music, and they do not. At the end of the treatment, Alex is unable to carry out or even contemplate violent acts without crippling nausea. He is also unable to listen to Beethoven without experiencing the same jarring physical reaction.